End Game (Jack Noble #12)

by L. T. Ryan

  I leapt up, aimed, fired. The round tore through the guy’s thigh. He dropped to the ground, losing control of his automatic. I surveyed the yard for his partner, but could not locate him or any others. Maybe they were behind the fence, waiting for us now that I’d taken out the first guy.

  “Jack, get down!”

  I dropped at the same time a window on the side of the house exploded. The round nailed the refrigerator, tearing through it and ripping the door from its top hinge.

  “I’m gonna start shooting,” I said. “You run for the back door.”

  I rose, aimed both pistols at the side of the house where they had shot from and opened fire, sending a round every two seconds. The guy dropped out of sight. Lexi dashed to the door, bent at the waist, kept low. She had her firearm at the ready. I followed her with one pistol aimed at the front door, the other at the expansive bank of windows on the side of the house.

  Lexi went out first. I waited at the edge of the deck while she sprinted across the yard, past the dog who looked like he’d been wounded. The spot offered the best vantage point. While I looked over it, my mind started racing in an attempt to put together the pieces of why this was happening. It was too soon to process it all. That would come later. We had to get away first.

  Lexi signaled from the opposite end of the yard that she had me covered. I dashed a third of the way, stopped and dropped to a knee next to the man I’d shot. His face was pale. The glimmer in his eyes faded. Blood sprayed weakly from his severed femoral artery. He babbled something incoherent. I checked his pockets for identification or anything that might reveal who he was. There was nothing, and there wasn’t much time to waste. On the other side of the house was the other attacker. Maybe more.

  I scooped up the automatic and ran to the fence. Once there, I tossed the firearm over and didn’t bother stopping. I jumped, planted one foot against the fence, grabbed the top with both hands, and swung myself over.

  Lexi joined me through the gate a second later. “Please tell me you blew your ACL with that stupid move.”

  I squatted half-way. “Think I’m good. There’s still time on the way to the car though.”

  “Time to get serious.” She looked around. We were in pretty deep woods here, like much of the property surrounding Thanos’s residence. “Anyone could be out here.”

  “Wasn’t anybody here twenty minutes ago when I came through.”

  “A lot can happen in twenty minutes.”

  “Ain’t that the truth.”

  I started through the woods, but stopped in my tracks when the dog barked. I couldn’t leave him behind. I hopped the fence and saw him limping toward me.

  “What are you doing?” She looked at me like I was crazy.

  “Cover me.” I dropped into the yard and knelt next to the dog. He’d been injured, a pretty nasty cut on his leg and back. I hoisted him up over my shoulder. The dog growled, then whimpered, seemingly letting go and letting me carry him. “Gotta trust me, buddy.”

  We worked silently through the woods as a team. It helped that some of our training was universal, and some was common sense. We reached the edge of the woods, a mere fifty feet from the Civic and our getaway.

  “There it is,” I said.

  “And there they are,” she said.

  I followed her outstretched finger and saw the police car at the end of the street.

  14

  We positioned ourselves behind a wide oak thick enough that if Bear were with us, he’d be out of sight, too. I hoped the cops wouldn’t get out. In fact, it seemed too soon for them to have even arrived. We seemed far enough away from the city that the sound of a shotgun wouldn’t raise too much concern. An automatic, on the other hand, wouldn’t be an everyday occurrence. With the neighbors spaced a good distance from each other, and it being nine-thirty in the morning, the time between a 9-1-1 call being placed and the police arriving should’ve been longer.

  “This street doesn’t connect to Thanos’s neighborhood,” I said. “That’s why I chose it.”

  She nodded. “I know, which makes it more confusing that we’re seeing this patrol car, but not hearing any sirens yet.”

  “Regular patrol?”

  She peeked around the side of the oak, shook her head when she returned. “They’re stopped in front of your car. One guy’s on the radio, the other’s reading him the VIN.”

  “All right, all right.” I ran my hands through my hair. “Just go up to them, tell them you’re FBI and it’s your vehicle.”

  Lexi ignored me. “I’m parked about a quarter mile to the north from here. We can backtrack a bit, then head through the woods. We can get to it with minimal time in the open.”

  I wasn’t keen on heading back toward the men who were trying to punch holes in us with their firearms. “Why don’t you go tell them who you are?”

  “After what just happened? You kidding me?” She leaned back against the tree. “We’ll be caught up in paperwork the rest of the week. I don’t have time for that. I gotta find Thanos.”

  “You and me both.”

  She eyed me after I made the statement. I could see the next question forming on her lips.

  The sirens cut through the air like a hawk moments before it descended to snatch his prey. We both stiffened and readied our firearms. I eased around the side of the tree and saw the patrol car tearing down the street. The call had come in, and they were closest to the scene. I had feared they heard the chaos and that’s why they were present. They must’ve only recently arrived.

  “Let’s roll.” Lexi dashed toward the Civic. By the time I cleared the woods, she was at the passenger door.

  I freed the fob from my pocket and unlocked the doors. A few seconds later, I had the dog in the backseat, the car in drive, and was following in the tire tracks of the police cruiser.

  “No, not that way,” she said.

  “One way in, one way out,” I said.

  “No, it’s not. There’s a dirt road that connects to another dirt road that dumps off on a back road.”

  I left the car idling for a moment. A chill raced up and down my spine. Usually happened when I was about to enter a world full of hate and pain.

  “I know what you’re thinking, but you gotta trust me, Lamb. There’s gonna be ten patrol cars and a couple detectives here soon. They’re gonna block the roads. Even if we had gone to my car, we might not have made it out of Thanos’s neighborhood.”

  There was something about the desperation in her voice that left me feeling like I could trust her.

  “All right,” I said. “So help me, if you’re lying…”

  She placed her hand on my forearm. “It’s legit.”

  I followed her directions and turned onto the first dirt road. A cloud of dust plumed behind us, distorting the reflection in the rearview. If someone was going to move in on us, this was their chance.

  The road led into the woods where it intersected with a smaller path that was nothing more than two narrow tire tracks almost overgrown with waist-high grass and weeds. I laid off the accelerator and slithered along the path. No telling what might be hidden in the undergrowth. Even a stump could cause the Civic to become stuck, leaving us to huff it out on foot in twenty-degree weather.

  The steady drone of a helicopter approached from the north. The sound grew louder by the second. We were nearing a clearing in the woods, so I stopped the car to prevent us from being caught out in the open. The chopper hovered nearby for what felt like an eternity. The windows fogged as anxiety increased our respirations.

  “Might be a good time to call your SA,” I said.

  “Not gonna happen,” she said.

  Why was she keeping her Special Agent in charge out of the loop here? Had she screwed something up? Miscalculated her plan? Had a major oversight on some detail or another? Regardless, rules were rules for her and she risked further trouble by not following them.

  “At least not until you tell me what’s going on with you,” she said.

&nbs
p; “Look at that,” I said aiming a finger toward the sky. “The helicopter’s moved on. Time to go.”

  I shifted into gear and sped through the opening. The little car bounced and banged and groaned, but it made it to the cover of the woods on the other side of the field without stalling or getting stuck.

  “It’s just a couple hundred yards from here,” she said.

  I didn’t have a plan to follow anymore. This wasn’t supposed to go down this way. I thought I would get in, kill whoever was in my way, deal with Thanos and extract any and all information I could from him. Then he’d die. A long winding trip back to New York would follow.

  But now? I wasn’t sure what the next ten minutes held for me, let alone the next couple of weeks.

  Lexi aimed her finger to the right once we reached the asphalt. “About two miles that way and we’ll turn left. That’ll take us to the highway.”

  I lingered at the edge while searching the sky for the helicopter. It was nowhere in sight. I eased us out of the cover of the trees and pulled onto the single-lane road. Ten minutes later we were heading northwest on I-90.

  I kept my gaze fixed on the rear-view more than on what lay ahead of us. In a land dominated by oversized all-wheel drive SUVs, the Civic felt like a copperhead hiding in the weeds. The compact would be a pain to tail due to sightlines, but I knew it could be done by a competent agent. I didn’t begin to feel comfortable that we had escaped undetected until we’d traveled five miles on the highway.

  Lexi broke the monotonous drone of the road. “Who was that guy I spoke with earlier?”

  I glanced over at her. Her eyebrows were raised, lips slightly parted. Seemed she was genuinely interested.

  “Just a guy.”

  “Come on, Lamb.”

  I glanced at the side mirror.

  “That’s not your name, is it?”

  I shook my head.

  “Didn’t think so.” She tucked her left ankle under her right knee. “Not even when you introduced yourself at my cousin’s house.”

  “What gave it away?”

  “Nothing you did.” She adjusted the radio volume down a notch. “It was my cousin. Ever so slightly, he had a quick nervous glance when you said your name.”

  “He used to be better than that, you know.”

  She nodded, said nothing.

  “I’ll have to give him crap over that.”

  “You should. Especially considering what he does out of that little house. If he’s ever picked up, someone like me will read right through him.” She changed the station until she found one playing ‘80s music. Was that Madonna singing or Cindi Lauper? I couldn’t tell back then, and I sure as hell couldn’t now. “Anyway, given his reaction and the fact I had never heard or saw the name Jonah Lamb in any documents related to him, I had someone look you up that night.”

  “Find much?”

  “I guess everything you wanted me to find.”

  “Not you, specifically.”

  “Right, well, it read like a false cover.”

  I shot her a look, and she nodded.

  “I used to be involved in the DCO,” she said, referring to the FBI’s Department of Covert Operations. “Both in the field and at a desk providing support and intel. I lived deep cover for three years straight. Worked my tail off to take down this crime syndicate, only to have my cover blown when I was a week away from pulling off the biggest bust Chicago had ever seen.”

  “That’s quite a statement.”

  “Damn right it is. You’ve got no idea what was about to go down.” She took a deep breath, looked out the window, sighed. “Anyway, with my cover blown I had to leave that kind of work right then and there. Spent some time inside in the same unit doing support and intel again, but couldn’t take it. Felt like a caged animal. So I switched to another boring desk job. I only recently found my way back into the field kind of on a trial basis to see how things go. If I can’t cut it, it’s back to cubicleland I go.”

  That explained a few things. And it made me wonder how well she kept her boss up to date on Thanos. If they were nervous about her being out in the field, then anything that wasn’t perfect could be cause for them to pull her again. Presumably she hadn’t informed anyone of her meeting today, otherwise we’d be downtown, safe in a high-rise building, in a corner office overlooking the lake.

  “What about you?” she asked.

  I shrugged. “Not much to tell.”

  “C’mon, Lamb, or whoever you are.” She shifted in her seat so her torso faced me. “Who are you anyway?”

  “Can’t really divulge that right now, not with your contacts.”

  “I’ll figure it out eventually. How many SIS agents could there have been in the last decade?”

  I threw her a slight bone. “Call me Jack.”

  “Is that your real name?”

  I shrugged. “I’ll reply to it better than Jonah Lamb. I hate that name.”

  “Fair enough, Jack.” She reclined her seat and closed her eyes. “Let’s head up to Madison for the night and find a place to stay. We can regroup in the morning.”

  15

  We reached our destination around three in the afternoon and checked into a motel on the outskirts of Madison, Wisconsin. It was a great college town with the right amount of small town feel and plenty of bars. It put us about an hour from Milwaukee, and two and some change from both Green Bay and Chicago. If needed, the train station offered a way to get us to any of the three cities, or it could take us west.

  With the way things had gone, I had to anticipate that at some point the Civic would be hot. I parked it on a street a block away from the motel in a spot I could see from the window in our room. If the car was found, we’d have a slight head start.

  I laid down on the bed, window shades parted so I could see the Honda. The drone of the running shower lulled me into a meditative state. Steam escaped through the cracked bathroom door. Through it I could see the fogged up mirror and light bar above it.

  Lexi still hadn’t filled me in on all the details of her relationship with Thanos. I only knew that she expected him to be there this morning. At the time, I had thought Thanos had left with Ginger voluntarily, but now I was reconsidering it. Perhaps he’d been forced to leave. Was it for his own protection? Had they figured out that the car rented to Jonah Lamb was not a good sign?

  Or was Thanos in even more trouble than if I had gotten to him first?

  I propped a second pillow behind my head and stared up at the ceiling for a few moments. Why were we here? It made little sense that we were hiding out in the middle of Wisconsin instead of taking this head on in Chicago. Lexi was keeping something from me. She was smart to give me some information while holding back.

  The water valve squeaked and the water slowed to a steady drip before cutting off completely. The last bit gurgled down the drain. Lexi’s bare arm slipped past the cracked door, then her back, and half of her ass. She leaned against the door and it latched shut. I sighed and turned my attention back to the view outside, managing to clear my head of all thoughts for a couple minutes.

  A few minutes later Lexi emerged from the bathroom wrapped in a towel that came down to her mid-thigh.

  I turned toward her and soaked in the view. “Comfy?”

  “Clothes are drying.” She gestured toward the bathroom with her chin.

  “Can’t stand a day in them?”

  Shrugging, she stepped over the dog on her way toward the bed. “They were covered in drywall and dirt and stunk like gunfire and sweat.”

  “Some guys like that kind of thing.”

  “Not the kind I like.” She peeled back the sheets on the other bed. “If the towel’s a problem for you, I can take it off.”

  My eyebrows arched as I mulled it over for a second.

  “Kidding, Jack.” She threw back the sheets and laid down. Her knees were bent, pointing at the ceiling. A drip of water slid down her thigh, disappearing into the towel.

  I waited a couple minutes
to see if she’d make a move. She did, but not the kind I’d hoped for. Her eyes closed and she appeared to drift off to sleep.

  “What’re we doing here?” I said.

  She opened her eyes and took in a quick breath. I’d startled her awake. “What?”

  “What are we doing here in Wisconsin?”

  “I was napping.” She looked over at me. “I can only guess what you’ve been doing with a woman in a towel in the bed beside you.”

  “Don’t flatter yourself.”

  “I don’t need to.”

  “Right, still doesn’t answer my question. Why are we hiding in a motel room in Madison?”

  “You’re free to leave.” She pointed to the door. “I don’t need your help any more than you need mine.”

  I didn’t move. Fact was, we both did need each other’s help. Maybe not for long. But until our stories were reconciled, neither of us was ready to let the other out of their sight.

  “That’s what I thought.” She closed her eyes and eased her head back onto the pillow.

  “Lexi, come on. Level with me.”

  She rolled toward me, propped up on her elbow, stared me down. “Tell you what. You let me have a quick nap, and I’ll fill you in on everything that’s happened up till this point over dinner.”

  “Only if it’s steak.”

  I noticed the dog’s ears perk up.

  “Deal,” she said.

  I waited a few minutes after she fell asleep, then got up and left the room. The cold air hit me with a jolt that carried me far enough to find a cup of coffee. I headed down the road on foot away from the side street I’d parked the Civic on until I reached a small store. The Mom n’ Pop gas station had everything I needed. Fresh coffee, couple of sticks of beef jerky, and a selection of pay as you go phones. A burner that required no personal information to purchase, and could be bought with cash.